This is What We Want to See in the Next Season of Doctor Who

September 10, 2015

While for some people the arrival of September means the start of a new term at school/college/university, for devoted Whovians the month heralds the beginning of something with much more significance: the return of Doctor Who to our screens.

The ninth season of the rebooted era of Doctor Who once again features Peter Capaldi in the title role, along with Jenna Coleman as the feisty Clara Oswald.

While we already have a pretty good idea of what to expect over the next 13 episodes (including the return of Missy and a cameo from Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams), here at Risefeed we would like to think that the next season of Doctor Who will address some of the things that season eight just really didn’t do well at.

Amongst some of the things we’re hoping for over the next few months include the following:

Stronger Storylines for Peter Capaldi

Listen, we reckon Peter Capaldi has got the capacity to be one of – if not the – best Doctors ever. He’s got the authority of Jon Pertwee’s Doctor, mixed with the loveable charm of Tom Baker and a touch of darkness as previously seen in Eccleston’s Doctor. Plus he’s got a fucking awesome coat. I mean, just look at it. It’s the coat equivalent of Louboutin heels.

While the eighth season did well in establishing the new mysterious, more serious side to Capaldi’s Doctor, it also had some pretty poor episodes. For instance, I’d be pretty content if we could just completely erase In the Forest of the Night and Robot of Sherwood from Doctor Who history.

Stronger, more Doctor-focused episodes would definitely be much appreciated in the next season of Doctor Who.

Less Reliance on Clara

As a girl of the 90s, I’m 100% for girl power, especially when the girl in question is the awesome Clara Oswald. However, you’ve got to agree that the last season did start to feel a bit like ‘The Clara Show’.

As great as she is, it would be even better if the show could focus a lot more on the new Doctor, particularly when he’s in his early stages of character development.

No More Danny Pink

Can we all agree that Danny Pink needs to stay dead (oops, spoiler alert, sorry)? Yeah he may have helped bring out another side to Clara last season, but was it really a side we needed to see? His sappy demeanour just seemed to completely detract from the other storylines (as bad as they were). And yeah, while his death was kinda sad, I’ll feel a bit cheated if he suddenly comes back through a wibbily wobbly timey wimey loop. I’ll want my tears back, BBC. With a bow on top.

Get Rid of the School Kids

…or, at least, make sure they don’t have that much air time; they just seem to pop up everywhere. In fact, the only time I’d be happy to see them back next season is if the whole school has been privatised by Cybermen.

A Monster Shake-Up In The Next Season of Doctor Who

Since Doctor Who came back on our screens in 2005, the Cybermen have featured in 13 episodes; that’s around 11.5% of the new episodes to date. As for the new, semi-fluorescent Daleks? They’ve been in 15 episodes (around 13% of all episodes so far). I mean, they’re cool and all, but they do need to do something a bit more exciting than reappear in new colours every now and again. They’re not collectable gel pens or anything, FFS.

The problem with Daleks is that, for seasoned viewers, they’re just too iconic to really pose any kind of threat to the Doctor; they’ve been in season finales so much, we’ve kind of got a bit…Dalek desensitised. Used sparingly and for a real purpose Daleks can work well, but the writers have over 50 years of monsters for inspiration. We’d love to see more of those resurfacing to keep the show feeling fresh.

Basically, what I’m saying is – just bring back the Kandyman. A psychopathic murderer made up of liquorice and sherbert is just what our Saturday nights have been missing.